[The CHU-CRLCC-UNSA tumour/tissue bank of the Nice area]

The human tissue bank of Nice associates the CHU, the Antoine Lacassagne Center, and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis. This bank has been labelled by the French Ministery of Health in 2003, and has been open in September 2004. Two main collections have been setting up: the tumoral and non tumoral thyroid pathology and the tumoral and non tumoral pleuro-pulmonary pathology collections. Other collections will be soon incorporated in this Biobank. The main criteria of quality connected with these collections are described. These different criteria of quality have been defined before the beginning of the collect, and thus, they have been initially strictly applied. The quality of the tissue stored at low temperature, the accuracy of the clinical and histopathological data associated with the tissue specimens, and the different procedures, should allow to obtain a labellisation by different appropriate organisms. This is crucial since the different research projects developped from human tissue collections, used expensive and accurate technologies (microarray, CGH array, proteomic, real time PCR, laser capture microdissection, etc.), and the results obtained need to be reproductible. An optimal quality both for the stored tissues and for the procedures applied in a human tissue bank is obliged since some of these tissues specimens are going to be used to try to define new prognosis criteria of tumours and new therapeutic strategies for the patients.